It can be a nightmare to try and persuade our children to see the doctor, dentist or hairdresser. But is it any wonder our children are reluctant when they know that to place themselves in any of these ‘health’ practitioners hands means surrendering all control? The good news is that there are a few tricks to stuff up your sleeves to make the process a little more bearable.

Here is a sample of some of our easy and effective tools for solving this issue

This works really wellL

EMPATHY AND VALIDATION:

• Reflect back what you see the child experiencing with great empathy and understanding.
• For example “ I can see that you feel upset by this situation, sometimes I’m not keen to go to the dentist either, but I know that he or she is going to make my teeth better.”

Here is another suggestion:

GIVE A CHOICE:

• Ask your child to choose between two options that suit you.
• For example ‘Would you like me to help you climb into the chair or would you like me to help you?’ ‘Would you like look at this magazine or that one?’
• Keep offering as many choices as possible to keep your child in ‘thinking mode’ and thus reducing the anxiety and the power struggles.

Then you could try:

POSITIVE REDIRECTION:

• This is actually the only situation where we would ever recommend a reward! However it may be that focusing on a reward is the only way your child will be able to forget about his or her fear.
• The reward can be a treat or an experience… as in “Once we’ve done this, I think we will need to do something nice like go ice skating or to a the movie”.

 

These are just a few examples of our Best of Parenting Tools. You can find more ideas and solutions to typical parenting challenges in our book ‘Kids Don’t Come With a Manual – The Essential Guide to a Happy Family Life‘.